


Emo Bands and Adventurous Hands

by marbodt



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bands, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Killing Game (Dangan Ronpa), Alternate Universe - Scemo, Gen, Kaito is a major major asshole, M/M, lots of swearing and slurs I apologize
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:35:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25391731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marbodt/pseuds/marbodt
Summary: Abandoned work, as the person who I was writing this with isn't in my life anymore. Apologies.
Relationships: Akamatsu Kaede/Harukawa Maki, Oma Kokichi/Saihara Shuichi
Comments: 1
Kudos: 30





	1. The Meeting

Shuichi wasn't expecting too much from his first day of college. Sure, there would be the confusion of how to get to his classes, there would be strangers, there would be people he might know. He wasn't expecting, however, a fight on the very first day of classes.  
  
A smaller kid, dressed in shorts and a jacket, of all things, yelled "sure thing, big guy!" to the larger student. Both of them had purple spiky hair, although one's was spiked upwards, while the other's was spiked out to the sides a bit. The larger student had bruised up legs, and, almost as soon as Shuichi noted the bruised legs in his mind, the smaller student moved around quickly and then kicked him in the shins.  
  
"That's Kaito." A soft voice came from beside Shuichi. "I can tell because Maki used to talk about him a lot." Shuichi turned his head slightly to see his friend Kaede beside him. Kaede was wearing her pink overall dress and playing with the straps with her hands.  
  
Shuichi nodded. "Which one? And don't say 'the one with the purple spiked hair', because that won't help."  
  
Kaede laughed to herself. "The tall one." Shuichi nodded again and turned his head again, slightly, to see what they were doing. Kaito was trying his best to dodge the smaller one's kicks, lunging around a little. All of a sudden, Kaito stopped, and then swung his body and arm around, punching the smaller one in the face. He fell to the ground, and Kaito laughed. Shuichi glanced around, but there weren't many people around, and nobody was really close enough to see what was exactly going on. He felt like he should help, as kicking someone's legs was a lot different than actually punching someone. Kaede sighed. "I think I know what you're thinking. Nobody really cares that Kaito fights a lot, he's got some sort of illness. He coughs up blood sometimes."  
  
Shuichi grimaced. "That's rough, but he shouldn't be punching anyone. Especially not someone so much... Smaller than him."  
  
Kaede snorted. "True, but that kid was in one of my classes earlier. He was being really difficult with the teacher." Shuichi sighed in response, shaking his head. That surely couldn't mean he was bad enough of a person to get punched, right?  
  
"Fuck you!" The smaller kid got up shakily, smiling.  
  
Kaito shook his head, pulling back his fist again. "Fuck you, faggot."  
  
Shuichi felt like he lost it. "Don't wait up." He ran towards the two, making Kaito, who was able to see him at the angle, pause. Shuichi grabbed the smaller one's arm, pulling him up.  
  
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Kaito practically was holding back laughter. "Saving your fag friend?"  
  
"Listen, I don't know you, but piss off. Don't call him that." Shuichi pulled the other's arm, starting to walk. He followed awkwardly, stumbling at first. Kaede was just in sight, still walking, so that's where Shuichi was headed.  
  
"You're lucky, Kokichi, you dumbass, I'd beat the shit out of you but your little friend has a girlfriend over there." Kaito yelled after them.  
  
Shuichi rolled his eyes. The kid he was pulling along, apparently named Kokichi, suddenly brought his hand to his nose and uttered a quiet "fuck".  
  
"Hey, are you alright?" Shuichi asked, giving up on getting back to Kaede and pulling the both of them down under a tree.  
  
Kokichi laughed, "Yeah, my nose is just bleeding." Shuichi just let out a huff of air before pulling off his backpack, bringing it in front of them, and started digging. "Why the hell did you even do anything?"  
  
"He." Shuichi tried making himself sound as nonchalant as possible. "He called you a slur."  
  
"I'm used to it. What does it matter to you, anyway? Are you gay?" Kokichi raised his hand up, still pinching his nose, to show a nasty smirk.  
  
Shuichi glared. "Don't be rude. Your nose could be worse if I didn't stop him." Shuichi finally found what he was looking for, a bandana, and handed it to him.  
  
"I'm not being rude, I'm asking a question. One fag to another potential fag." Kokichi laughed, at least Shuichi was pretty sure that's what it was. Shuichi huffed again, clenching his jaw. "Do you really not like that word so much?"  
  
"I don't." Shuichi responded bluntly.  
  
Kokichi's face seemed to change slightly before going back to the snarky looking smirk he had on his face right before. "Alrighty then. Still got my bets on you being gay."  
  
Shuichi stared down at the grass. "So?"  
  
Kokichi leaned over the other's backpack, trying to see Shuichi's expression. "So, maybe we could, I dunno." Kokichi contemplated what he was going to say. "Maybe go to that gay club together? Well, when it opens."  
  
"You're serious." Shuichi looked up at Kokichi, and Kokichi shrugged, not sure what to do.  
  
Kokichi's face let down its smirk. "I am, actually. It's kind of a shitty club from what I hear, but they apparently have cake on the first day."  
  
"Why would I be caught dead going to a strip club?"  
  
"NO!" Kokichi started laughing, much different than before. "God, no, I meant the gay straight alliance club, Jesus."  
  
"Oh." Shuichi's face felt hot. He felt like an idiot, but Kokichi was obviously at fault in his mind for not clarifying better. "I mean, I guess, but why? Besides, we've obviously got one homophobic kid in this school, aren't you worried about there being others?"  
  
"Not really, I've been in school with Kaito long enough and I've taken enough beatings from him to not really give a shit anymore."  
  
"That's not a good thing. What about me? Are you just going to let some stranger who helped you out on the first day of school get bullied by everyone from now on?"  
  
Kokichi shook his head. "I wasn't thinking about you..." Kokichi cringed inside of his head. "I mean, you don't have to be a stranger though. What's your name? Oh, I'm Kokichi Ouma." He smiled, but it looked too cheesy to Shuichi to be real.  
  
"Shuichi." Shuichi bobbed his head side to side very awkwardly, "Uh, Shuichi Saihara."  
  
"Well, Shuichi, I have to ask, why would you even help me if you're so worried about homophobes? Don't you think that asshole Kaito would come after you, too?"  
  
"I wasn't really thinking." Shuichi admitted, looking down at the grass again. "Just. I just got angry."  
  
Kokichi was a bit puzzled by Shuichi. He was definitely an interesting character, even from what he's just seen so far. "If you're so scared of people knowing you're gay, why do you dress like that?" Kokichi did his weird little laugh again.  
  
Shuichi grabbed his bag and stood up. "I gave you my bandana, go ahead and keep it for your nose, I have more that aren't bloody."  
  
"Hey, hey, I was joking!" Kokichi said loudly, standing up as well.  
  
"Goodbye, Kokichi." Shuichi pulled on the strings of his flannel, hands gripped tight. What did Kokichi even mean by that? He wasn't dressed in anyway special. Was it his skinny jeans?


	2. The Right to Game

"Your leader is here, everyone!"

"Hey, Kokichi!" One, Miko, said happily, smiling back, her pigtails bouncing a bit as she shook her head side to side. "Nice eye!"

It had been a while since he heard that voice. Kokichi smiled brightly in the badly lit room. He wasn't even surprised that his friends didn't question his bruised up eye. Besides his roommate, Katsurou, who saw him right after his fight yesterday.

At least they noticed. "Oh you know, just another shining trophy!" Kokichi sat down beside her kicking his legs up at the table they were all gathered around at. "What's on the battle plan for today?”

"Hopefully more DND," Another, Sora, said, almost sounding like a question. "I like how frustrated Tosato gets whenever we play."

"Oh, fuck off." Tosato laughed, flicking the candle wax on his hand at Sora. He then carefully dipped his finger back into the little bowl his candle was sitting in and moved it around, playing with the wax. Juwa, sitting next to him, just shook her head.

Katsurou, hoping that Kokichi would at least explain his reason for his newest fight with Kaito, scooted his chair closer to the table. "So, what really happened with Kaito?"

"Nothing really. The usual. He was being an asshole, I kicked him a bunch, but he managed to punch me." Kokichi shook his head, "I don't know if I'd have gotten hit again or not because some kid ran over and pulled me away."

"That's, well, new." Katsurou raised an eyebrow. "Someone got on your good side like that?"

"I don't know what you mean. He just heard Kaito say..." Kokichi paused, knowing that not everyone in the group was okay with his language. "Well, let's just say Kaito said a homophobic slur and this kid got heated."

"Kaito still doesn't know I'd fuck him up, I guess." Aisake said, smiling bright. "I'd rip that damn ugly goatee right off!" He laughed, punching Chidori's shoulder lightly. 

Chidori smiled sweetly, laughing a bit herself. "He'd probably look grosser than usual."

Kokichi smiled to himself, glad everyone was getting along, even if they do sometimes get heated up a bit over games. Kokichi felt like this group, that they all had decided to call DICE, was his family. Sure, some of them had decent ones of their own, but the rest had pretty bad homes. Kokichi used to live with his mom and dad, two rich assholes, according to him. At the least, they sent him money every month and offered to pay for his college. However, Kokichi knew how nasty they were at heart, growing up with them meant hearing their horrible language to each other about how people, people who Kokichi would later join, were disgusting, dirty, sinners 'not following God's image.' His parents said that about anyone poor, gay, trans or even mentally ill. And here Kokichi was, with practically all four. He knew his parents wouldn't support him any longer if he came out, especially since they were already reluctant to support him because of his group of friends, so he left them behind with the excuse of getting ready for college. 

Kokichi took a deep breath, thinking to himself about his family. He wanted nothing more than to come out to them, to have them accept him, but he knew they would never. Instead they hide behind the Bible as an excuse to reject their only fucking child. Fuck, he really, really, hated this. He began to walk off. 

The abandoned building they held their meetings in was pretty big, even just on the first floor, so he walked over to one of the many empty and dirty rooms where he hoped they wouldn't find him. Kokichi often tries to just ignore his thoughts, but every so often they get so overwhelming past the point of ignoring, they spiral around his head, almost as if they're yelling at him. This was one of those times. He felt so stressed and like he was about to go out of control. He walked over to one of the many old broken down office chairs, pulling it closer to the center of the room, and kicked it as hard as his leg would let him. Again and again, and again. He stomped at it before jumping at the neck of the chair and snapping it. Eventually his feet were starting to feel the pain and ache of getting hit against the dumb chair. "Fuck!" He yelled out in anger before collapsing and covering his head with his hands, his arms shaking a little. He could barely think, which he supposed was good, no more unnecessary thoughts of his awful parents. Yet he still felt the anger inside him and pulled one of his hands down to his mouth.

"Kokichi, stop, please." Katsurou, who went searching for the boy a bit after he stormed off, murmured before gently, putting a hand on the other's shoulder. Kokichi turned to look up at him and blinked out of confusion, as well as momentary calmness. It was almost like his blind rage was lifted. "Don't do that." Katsurou continued.

Pulling his hand from his mouth that was covered with bite marks caused Katsurou to stare at it before switching his attention back on to his friend's face waiting for a response. "Fuck you."

Okay then. "Yeah, fuck you, too. Now come on, I told the others to just go home."

"But... What about,"

Kokichi was stopped with Katsurou's reassuring voice. "They understand. Why don't you talk about yesterday?"

"Yesterday?"

"You didn't say anything when you got home, and after talking about it even a little you ran off."

"Oh." Well, Kokichi thought to himself, at least he's not going to be talked to about therapy again. "Uh, well, really, it was pretty normal. Guess I have some steam still because that kid pulled me away."

"Alright, talk about the kid." Katsurou kept a hold on Kokichi's right arm, the arm connected to the hand he wanted to keep biting. "Focus on something else."

"Well. He's like, tall. Not as tall as you, but tall compared to me, at least. And he had on black skinny jeans and a red flannel, he's totally fucking emo. Dark blue hair and everything. Black shirt, too. His eyes were nice, like golden almost, but darker."

Katsurou smiled as he led Kokichi out the door. "You like him?"

"No, no. He's cute, but no."

"You just said he's cute."

"Hey, shut up or I'll bite  _ you _ ." Kokichi grinned at him. "But I mean, I could get to know him better. He's interesting."

Katsurou nodded his head. "Sure. Got a name?"

"Uh, Shuichi. Shuichi S-somethin’."

"Saihara?"

"Maybe, yeah. Why?" Kokichi looked over at Katsurou, "How do you even know that?"

"Art class with him. I could try and talk to him for you if you want, at least figure out if he's gay or bi."

"I already know he's gay, idiot, but I don't like him like that."

"Yet you know he's gay?" Katsurou held back a laugh. "You don't know yourself as well as I do, Kokichi. Sure, you ask a lot of questions, but that's not exactly a normal question to just ask anyone."

"It was topical, he was angry with Kaito for saying 'fag'!" Kokichi felt his face heating up. 

Katsurou shrugged, not wanting to carry on knowing Kokichi would probably prank him as revenge if he was teased any further. But Katsurou knew that Kokichi was a bit lonely. Even though he's stated to everyone that they're the only friends he needs, he obviously feels a bit left out sometimes. Katsurou could just tell things about Kokichi. Kokichi was a good liar, he's gotten them out of trouble with the police before, and not just once, either, but it was hard for Kokichi to lie when his actions told a different story.

* * *

The next two days after the fight on the first day of school were quite uneventful for Shuichi and Wednesday was no different, except it meant that Shuichi would be by himself for lunch, as Kaede had classes at his lunch time on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. So he sat in the cafeteria, awkwardly eating by himself. That was until a certain curly purple headed boy sat besides him.

"Shuichi! Wow, I didn't think I'd see you here." Kokichi leaned against the table sideways, propping his head on the back of his hands. "It seems a bit loud in here for you."

"And you think that why?"

"I mean, well, you seem pretty introverted."

Shuichi lifted his head up and looked at the clock. "Must almost be time for class."

"Class doesn't start for like another 30 minutes, asshole." Kokichi bit his tongue, keeping his jaw clenched as much as he could allow. "Do you think I'm annoying?"

"Well, you're blunt." Shuichi nervously shifted. How does one politely say that they think someone is uncomfortable? "I don't think you're annoying, but you have an odd way of speaking to others, at the very least."

"Oh, so Shumai hates me? Is that it?" Kokichi began tearing up and making a pouty face.

"Shumai? And quit it."

"Why should I?" Kokichi's teary eyes immediately turned back to normal. "You act like it was fake.." he smirked as the other male sighed. "Anyway, how did you feel about going to the gay club meeting?"

"If you'd stop calling it a 'gay club' that would be great. I don't know. I haven't had enough time to think. There's lots of cons and some pros."

"It's not like I'm calling it a gay bar! And hey, do you really think it's that bad? Ooh, do you think anyone's died in there?" Kokichi did his signature laugh, but Shuichi could sense the fact it was forced. 

"No, I'm just worried about bullying, that's all. Plus don't they usually make you say if you're gay or not? I don't know… it seems weird."

"Well," Kokichi dragged out the word, placing a finger in his hair and wrapping the hair around it. "We could always go to the mall together!"

Shuichi raised an eyebrow in response. He waited a moment, expecting Kokichi to say something, but was only met with silence. "Why do you feel like we  _ have  _ to do something together?"

"We don't exactly have to, but I'd like to. You're the only gay person I know, Shumai."

"Really? Because you don't have many friends?" Kokichi made his pouty eyes again at Shuichi. "I have a few. I know a lesbian, she's dating my friend, who's bi. And I know a bi guy, too." 

"They could be cool to meet, but I like you better." Kokichi took a moment to process what he said before backtracking. "Not that you're inherently better, it's just you're a guy, they're not guys. So I'm more comfortable around you."

"Right."

"Right." Kokichi responded with an awkward smile on his lips before turning away for a moment to look at the clock, and then back to Shuichi, who went back to eating. Shuichi glanced over at Kokichi, as he ate a bit slower.

"Watching me eat now?"

"Oh, no, sorry." He laughed his little laugh and then turned to face the table instead. Something about him was just intriguing, the way he seemed so blunt and rude, yet kind and caring, almost. Maybe Kokichi could possibly like him. Groaning mentally, he dreaded the thought of having a crush, much less on someone he barely knew. Did he just find him attractive? He could blame his genes. "You know, can I at least leave my number with you? You don't have to give me yours."

The golden eyed boy moved himself to put his elbows on the table, looking like he was about to put his head in his hands like he had a headache just from talking to Kokichi. "I guess. But I can't promise that I'll call. Or not lose your number."

Grinning, he replied, "Good enough." He pulled out a little notebook and a pencil from his jacket pocket, setting the notebook on the table before writing his number in somewhat scribbly handwriting. "Here ya go!" He hummed a bit as he ripped out and then slid the paper over to Shuichi who looked down at the piece of paper before grabbing it and putting it in his pocket.

It felt odd getting a number from practically a stranger, one who almost seemed to be as bad at socializing as he was. He thought briefly about how he wished he could talk to people like he could, not really caring about anything. Anxiety was a hell of a time for him. "Er, thanks." Shuichi gave him the most awkward smile before taking in a deep breath and standing up, taking his mostly eaten lunch along with him. "I've gotta get ready for my next class now, I don't mean to be a nerd, but I usually do show up to classes early."

Kokichi smiled. This time, it was genuine. "I see. 30 minutes early, though?" The smile soon turned a bit mischievous. Shuichi reacted by nodding slowly. "Oh." He replied. a bit disappointed, before shrugging and putting his notebook back into his pocket. "I'll see you around then, Shuichi. Don't forget to call!" 


	3. Chapter 3

Shuichi woke up to his curtains opening, bright sunlight glaring in his face. “Good morning, sleepy!” A familiar voice yelled out, causing Shuichi to groan. The culprit, Kaede, then laughed, letting go of the curtains. “Why aren’t you in class? I’m pretty sure you said you have classes on Thursday mornings, didn’t you?”  
  
“Yeah.” Shuichi’s voice cracked a bit as he spoke. He sat up, rubbing at his eyes, still sleepy. “I have study hall. I stayed up kinda late last night and I didn’t think I had anything important to do in study hall, anyway.”

  
Kaede shrugged, sitting down on the edge of Shuichi’s bed with a smile. As Shuichi slowly began waking up more, he started feeling a bit more aware of what was going on. He pulled his blanket around his shoulders, holding the edges of it together to cover himself. “You know, Shuichi, I don’t know why you’re still worried about me seeing you.” Kaede smiled as she spoke. “I’ve known you basically forever, I’ve seen you before you were out.”  
  
Shrugging his shoulders a bit, not moving the blanket he replied, “I guess I just feel… More dysphoric around people.” He sighed, looking down at the floor. “I get like, hyper aware of myself since people are looking at me, I guess?” Kaede nodded, trying her best to understand. As supportive of Shuichi that she was, she still didn’t understand some things, but Shuichi didn’t blame her at all. “Uh, can I go get dressed? I’m not exactly wearing pants, either...”  
  
Kaede laughed, nodding. “Go ahead, go ahead.” She waved him off.  
  
Shuichi got up quickly, awkwardly grabbing his clothes and holding them to his chest. He went into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him, and dropping his clothes onto the floor. Slowly he pulled himself in front of the mirror, staring at his face. There was a relatively small zit, compared to the acne he sometimes gets, but it still bothered him nonetheless. Shuichi leaned in a bit, pulling his hands up to his face and squeezing at his skin, trying to get rid of the zit. He then saw another, smaller and harder to see zit, and moved his hands to squeeze at that one, leaning in closer to see it. He kept doing this, moving his face as close to the mirror as he could get, picking at his skin at the smallest imperfections he could see, his face feeling slightly numb from all the squeezing and pinching. Then, he was startled by a knock at the door.  
  
“Shuichi, you alright in there?”  
  
Fuck. “Yeah! I’m fine.” He pulled back from the mirror, rubbing his face. He felt another small zit, his fingers lingered over it. “I’ll be out soon.”  
  
“Just hurry a little, okay? It's been a while!”  
  
Shuichi nodded before realizing Kaede couldn’t see him, and then responded with “Alright.”  
  
Shuichi quickly got himself dressed, as always struggling slightly with both his black skinny jeans and his binder, but easily pulled on his shirt and flannel. He sat on the floor, putting on his socks and shoes, before standing up and feeling a bit dizzy from doing so so quickly. Shuichi put his hands on the sink, steadying himself and looking down into the drain. He had to force himself not to look at the mirror again, he knew he’d just get sucked back in. He pushed away from the sink, standing back as he brushed his hair a bit to get rid of some of the more knotted parts of his hair. Once he decided he looked good enough to go out, he opened the door shyly, almost hoping that Kaede wasn’t there anymore.   
  
“Shuichi…” Kaede said, trailing off. She bit her lip before saying anything more. “Were you crying?”  
  
“What? No. Why do you think that?” Shuichi sat down on the edge of the bed next to Kaede, looking over at her.  
  
“Your face is red, and you took a long time in there. Shuichi, can I see your arms?”  
  
Shuichi groaned, thinking to himself, ‘oh great, this again’. “I’m fine, Kaede. I wasn’t crying or anything.”  
  
Kaede tilted her head to the side, making a disbelieving face. “Well, you’re hiding something.”  
  
Shuichi huffed, pulling up the sleeves on his flannel, showing his mostly clean arms, the only marks were very slight scars scattered on the left arm. “I told you, I’m fine.”  
  
Kaede sighed, having to accept that Shuichi was clean. “Still doesn’t explain why you took so long, or your red face.”  
  
Shuichi shrugged, trying to change the subject. “I’m good, and I took a while because I’m still tired.” Shuichi didn’t want to delve further into his behind-the-scenes lifestyle with Kaede, she already worried about him enough. She worried about everyone too much, he noted in his head. “Also, why did you come over?”  
  
“Oh!” She laughed a little, smiling at Shuichi. “My keyboard! Did you think I’d let you keep it?”  
  
Shuichi chuckled, shaking his head. “No, silly.”  
  
Kaede kept smiling, watching Shuichi as he got up from the bed and went into the small kitchen-like area in his dorm room. Although, it was a bit big for a dorm room, and Shuichi sometimes just called it his apartment. Kaede called it his ‘dormpartment’. Shuichi reached overhead, carefully grabbing and pulling down Kaede’s electric keyboard from on top of his fridge. He walked it back over to Kaede, carefully setting it up on its stand, and then sat on the bed while pulling it over to them. Shuichi talked a bit about how he was still working on the basics, showing Kaede some of the beginner level songs she printed out for him to learn. They sat together, playing the keyboard and talking idly for a while, before eventually Kaede’s phone alarm went off.   
  
“Ah! I should get going to class. Do you want a ride?”  
  
“Yes, please.”   
  
Once they had gotten into Kaede’s car she started driving off to their campus, which honestly didn’t take very long whatsoever, he realized once Kaede just finished parking. Slowly she turned off the music, some sort of classical piano that Shuichi couldn’t recognize, and popped open her car door.   
  
“Hey, um,” Shuichi grabbed Kaede’s arm awkwardly before speaking softly. “Can I ask you something?”   
  
“Of course, Shuichi.” Kaede muttered, gently closing the door, turning as best as she could in the seat to face Shuichi.   
  
“Well, I was wondering if you think it’d be a good idea for me to go with someone to the mall during lunch tomorrow.” Shuichi put his hands together, grabbing at his fingers, pulling, then grabbing at a different finger and doing the same, repeating in an almost rhythmic way.  
  
Kaede smiled reassuringly, taking note of this action “Of course, Shuichi. I think it’d be good to make some friends, especially since you’ve been a bit alone at lunch, right?”  
  
Shuichi nodded. “Alright, then how do I tell them in a not-weird way that I’d like to hang out with them?”  
  
Kaede’s thoughts went almost immediately to Shuichi’s anxiety. Sure, he was generally anxious, but he’s hung out with kids from school before. He’s never really asked her about how to not look weird when asking to hang out with others, and her suspicions started here. “Just be normal. If you want, I guess you could say you don’t really have anything else to do at lunch?”   
  
Shuichi nodded, pulling out his phone. “I’ll tell him, then.”  
  
Kaede’s ideas clicked together in her mind. “Shuichi, you’ve got his number in your phone and you’re also worried about looking weird, you either like this person or they’re really popular.”  
  
Shuichi opened his mouth to state something in his defense, but couldn’t think of anything right away. He stammered a bit, finally saying “I don’t like him.”  
  
Kaede smiled to herself. “Well, why do you have his number in your phone but still feel worried about coming off as weird? I don’t think you’d put a complete and total stranger’s number in there.”  
  
“Well, I mean, he’s not a total stranger, but I don’t really know anything about him.”  
  
“And yet you put their number in your phone?”  
  
Shuichi was having trouble finding his words, and his face felt a bit hot. He got embarrassed too easily. “Yeah, uh, it was the kid that I helped out on the first day of school, you know, the guy who was in the fight with, er, Kaito? He gave his number to me and I figured I’d put it in there in case, like, he got in trouble again with him or something. Then I’d know who’s texting me. He’s kinda weird and just gave it to me.”  
  
Kaede didn’t even begin to hold back her smile. Shuichi definitely had some sort of crush on him, as he said he wanted to know who was texting him but the other didn’t have his number. “I see. Why do you feel like coming off as weird is a bad thing, then, if you think he’s weird, too?”  
  
“Do you want anyone to think you’re weird, Kaede?”  
  
“I suppose not. But still, I think I was right.”  
  
Shuichi lifted up an eyebrow in confusion, his hands stopping their movements. “Right about what?”  
  
“I think you might like him.”  
  
Shuichi clenched his jaw, getting even more flustered, and a bit frustrated, although he wasn’t sure if it was with Kaede or himself. He unbuckled his seatbelt and opened up the car door, looking out at the parking lot. “I’m gonna be late if I don’t go now.”  
  
“Okay, Shuichi, I’ll see you later, then.”  
  
Shuichi nodded, unbuckled his seat belt and left, shutting the door behind him. As he walked off, Kaede began laughing a little, pulling out her phone and texting her girlfriend, Maki, that she thinks their friend might have a little crush on someone.  
  
Shuichi sighed, pulling at the straps of his backpack, trying to calm himself down. He hated how Kaede seemed to know more about him than he himself did. He took a deep breath, hoping his heated face would return to a normal temperature. Maybe he did think Kokichi was a bit cute, but he definitely didn’t like him. He thought quite a few of the boys around school were cute, but he also didn’t act so weird when thinking about them. Shuichi grumbled a bit to himself, pulling out his phone again.  
  
“I’ll go with you to the mall, I don’t really have much else to do.

-Shuichi”


End file.
